What we are reading: Why the Democrats can’t obstruct their way to power

An excellent piece of analysis from Aaron Blake of the Washington Post. A big takeaway is that a bare majority of House districts voted for Donald Trump and the GOP nominee for Congress (218). A minority (217) voted for some combination that included Democrats – either . Thanks to Congressional gerrymandering after the 2010 GOP wave, Republicans control the mechanisms that control distracting throughout the country. Per the 2016 election results, if the Democrats sweep every seat they have a base to win from they still fall one seat short of a majority in the House. To be successful both House and Senate, Democrats will need to reach out to those dreaded white working class voters so many liberals have a problem with (which in itself is a direct repudiation of the history of American liberalism), otherwise the midterms might not be the nirvana many in the party are expecting.